Tag Archives: computer chips

UCLA researchers create nanoscale structure for computer chips that could yield higher-performance memory

Researchers at UCLA have created a nanoscale magnetic component for computer memory chips that could significantly improve their energy efficiency and scalability.

The design brings a new and highly sought-after type of magnetic memory one step closer to being used in computers, mobile electronics such as smart phones and tablets, as well as large computing systems for big data. The innovative asymmetric structure allows it to better exploit electrons’ spin and orbital properties, making it much more power efficient than today’s computer memory. (more…)

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Made in IBM Labs: IBM Lights Up Silicon Chips to Tackle Big Data

• From the Lab to the Fab: Technology Breakthrough Demonstrates Feasibility of Silicon Nanophotonics for Chip Manufacturing
• Light Pulses Can Move Data at Blazing Speeds to Help Solve Bandwidth Limitations of Servers, Datacenters and Supercomputers
• After More Than a Decade of Research, Silicon Nanophotonics is Ready for Development of Commercial Applications

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – 10 Dec 2012: IBM announced today a major advance in the ability to use light instead of electrical signals to transmit information for future computing. The breakthrough technology – called “silicon nanophotonics” – allows the integration of different optical components side-by-side with electrical circuits on a single silicon chip using, for the first time, sub-100nm semiconductor technology.

Silicon nanophotonics takes advantage of pulses of light for communication and provides a super highway for large volumes of data to move at rapid speeds between computer chips in servers, large datacenters, and supercomputers, thus alleviating the limitations of congested data traffic and high-cost traditional interconnects. (more…)

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Made in IBM Labs: Breakthrough Chip Technology Lights the Path to Exascale Computing

*IBM Silicon Nanophotonics uses optical signals to connect chips together faster and with lower power*

Yorktown Heights, N.Y. – 01 Dec 2010: IBM scientists today unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light (instead of electrical signals), resulting in smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional technologies. 

The new technology, called CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics,  is the result of a decade of development at IBM’s global Research laboratories. The patented technology will change and improve the way computer chips communicate – by integrating optical devices and functions directly onto a silicon chip, enabling over 10X improvement in integration density than is feasible with current manufacturing techniques.  (more…)

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